Have you ever wondered what happened to Tim Cratchit and the gang after the end of A Christmas Carol? Well, neither have I actually, but other people have, and so we have God Bless Us, Every One by Thomas Pasateri (composer) and Bill Van Horn and Michael Capasso (librettists). It tells the further story of some of the Cratchits. It has love, adventure, war, degradation and redemption not to mention a whole lot of forgiveness. After twenty years, Scrooge dies at his desk, greatly beloved and successful. He leaves all of his money to the poor which leaves his business partner in a bind. Tim Cratchit, the partner and formerly Tiny Tim, sails to America to make his fortune. There he lands in the Civil War. Many scenes later he is re-united with his true love. Meanwhile his ward falls in love with a southerner.
The piece to my way of thinking was too much like a pageant (it is only one act) with people popping in and out of the story to make the various plot points . The music was better than serviceable but songs about "Christmas day, hurray hurray" don't quite do it. The staging was unusually good for Da Capo, a small opera company in a large expensive city. The fact that this was a co-production with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre undoubtedly helped. Audience applause was polite.
But the New York Times really liked it. (NYT, Dec. 19, 2010, page C1, "'A Christmas Carol', the (Operatic) Sequel." And I suspect it has a future especially for community productions which want something seasonal and for which a large caste and conventional sentiments are a draw.
Sort of recommended.
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